custom handle

I want to make my own handle for my straight razor and was just wondering on any suggestions as to what material to use to make it ?

You can use pretty much any material you like as long as its strong enough.

Common materials are bone, wood, ivory (if you can get the pre-ban stuff), micarta, acrylic, lucite and carbon fibre. Some of the more expensive customs use materials like abalone and mother of pearl.

Its really up to you!

Welcome to the site as well, how long have you been shaving with a straight razor for? What razor are you looking to rescale?

ive been learning to wet shave over the last 6 months I was given a 5/8 straight razor from a barber the blade is in fantastic condition but the handle is worn and a plastic material. I was thinking of making a wood handle but unsure as to how to treat the wood so it can cope with sterilisation any tips would be greatful

When you say "sterilisation" what do you mean? All you need to do to clean a razor is wipe it with some barbicide, so dont go down the road of autoclaving it or boiling it or anything.

An autoclave or boiling will wreck the scales (unless theyre metal) and may damage the blade as well. Barbicide is all you need.

In terms of treating the wood for waterproofing, check out the Workshop forums as they give details of how to waterproof wood. Popular methods are CA or epoxy finishes as they are hard wearing and take a good finish. I'm not a resto guy myself, so I cant give specific details as my knowledge is sadly lacking there...! :)

Moved this to the Workshop forum where it will get the attention it needs...

If you are going to go wood there are many finishes that work in fact just about all of them from simple Beeswax & Lemon oil to CA (superglue) are used...

I would highly suggest the Wiki and the Workshop forum has it's own how to section that has more info then you could ever digest..

the sticky at the top here is packed full with threads to peruse...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...wers-here.html